Powering potential
Year 13 students Ashlen Kaur and Maya Wells were selected to go to Wellington in December 2020 for the Powering Potential programme where they worked in teams on a project to solve a real-life scientific question. Working alongside specialised scientists gave them great insight into the scientific world.

These were their real-world problems:

Ashlen
“New Zealand's forests store a vast amount of carbon but this important carbon stock is threatened by climate change. What are the climatic factors that threaten forest carbon storage and what can we do to mitigate climate impacts on forests?”

Maya
“Should we promote replacement of sugar with artificial (non-nutritive) sweeteners for prevention of obesity and obesity-related diseases?"

Both students got to present their findings to a panel of experts after their research concluded.

Elaine P Snowden Astronomy School
Ashlen Kaur was one of 20 students throughout New Zealand selected for the Elaine P Snowden Astronomy School (run by the University of Canterbury) during the April holidays.  It was an amazing 6 six day experience, the highlight of which was visiting the Mt John Observatory at Tekapo and seeing all the amazing technology behind the various telescopes.